Mapping, modeling, and visual exploration of structure-function relationships in the heart

It is becoming clear that the emergent, integrative behaviors of biological systems result from complex interactions between all system components, and that knowledge of each component is not sufficient to understand such behaviors. In this paper, we describe our approach to the integrative modeling of cardiac function. This approach spans multiple levels of biological analysis, ranging from subcellular to tissue. We have applied diverse analytical methods, including imaging techniques for measurement of anatomic structure and biophysical and biochemical responses of cells and tissue, parallel computing techniques for the numerical solution of large systems of model equations, and interactive visual exploration of model dynamic behavior.